The Tongan maritime state: Oceanic globalization, polity collapse and chaotic interaction

The islands of the Pacic Ocean are frequently associated with maritime societies who were equipped with ocean-going canoes and the navigation techniques required to migrate across the vast distances separating island groups. Colonization aside, the development of complex maritime societies is surprisingly rare in Oceania, as many islands were in prehistory beyond the inuence of primary and secondary states and the trade networks of empires that were a feature of social development and hierarchy in other parts of the world (Taagepera 1978; Chase-Dunn and Hall 1997).